ECB stimulus lifting 2018 growth by a third of a percent: Coeure

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FILE PHOTO: Benoit Coeure, board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters journalists at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, May 17, 2017. Picture taken May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank stimulus will raise euro zone growth by around a third of a percentage point this year but will do little to lift the bloc’s long-term growth rates, ECB board member Benoit Coeure said on Wednesday.

“Even today, euro area growth still relies too much on monetary policy support,” Coeure said in Berlin. “The contribution of our easing measures to annual euro area GDP growth was half a percentage point in 2017 and will still be around one-third of a percentage point in 2018.”

“Monetary policy can do little to lift the long-term growth rate of our region,” he added.